State athletes surpass expectations at KL2017 SEA Games — Ong
KUCHING: The Sarawak Sports Corporation ( SSC), Sarawak State Sports Council ( MSNS) and the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports are happy and proud that the 52 Sarawak athletes had performed above expectations at the 29th SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur from Aug 19- 30.
SSC CEO cum MSNS director Dr Ong Kong Swee said the corporation, council and the ministry had been closely monitoring the developments on the athletes’ performances who had contributed almost 10 per cent of the total medals that Malaysia collected - 13 golds, 5 silvers and 3 bronzes.
“Three of our Sarawak athletes had performed above expectations and brought glory to the state and country by breaking four SEA Games records and they are Welson Sim in (swimming) men’s 400m and 200m freestyle and Jackie Wong Siew Cheer and Grace Wong Xiu Mei for men’s and women’s hammer throw,” he told The Borneo Post when contacted yesterday.
“Other senior athletes who also performed well were Pandelela Rinong Pamg, Bibiana Ng, Heidi Gan, Sanjay Singh Chal etcetera plus also the team events Rugby women (three players) bronze and basketball (one players) gold,” he cited.
On gs aid on the overall performances and from the analysis of the medal breakdown, he is proud and happy to say Sarawak will continue to contribute more in the future because most of the best performers are still young.
He cited Welson Sim ( 20-yearold) in Swmming, Jackie Wong (20) and Grace Wong (17) in Hammer Throwing, other athletes -Divers Kimberly Bong (15) and Traisy Vivian Tukiet, Abdul Rahman Lee (19) in discus and also in wushu and taekwondo.
“We were in fact very positive and have high hopes that Sarawak athletes will perform because from
We are very proud and happy that all the athletes have performed their best. Dr Ong Kong Swee, SSC CEO
our monitoring of our athletes earlier we found out that they were very committed in training and were in high spirits to perform in the SEA Games,” he revealed.
Ong said that the monitoring is part and parcel of the preparations for Sukma 2018 and also Sarawak’s vision to be the sports powerhouse of the country.
“We are very proud and happy that all the athletes have performed their best and contributed to the overall success of the Malaysian contingent,” he enthused.
“Helping the country win the SEA Games overall championship in fact will make us more motivated to ensure that we will achieve our goal and vision to be the sports powerhouse of the nation.
“This is by making sure that sports are developing well at the grass-roots up to high performance sports for the elite. We have to plan and develop the holistic aspect of sports especially on coaching, athletes’ trainings, technical and technology development of sports and sport administration of the sports associations in Sarawak,” he added.